Many magazines don't like to co-brand because sometimes it devalues their primary brand. Well, Maxim isn't thinking that way and we should all get ready to see Maxim and their logo everywhere. Maxim will have TV specials, cell phone services, hair cream, chairs, sheets, towels, etc. Could they maybe put the cover models everywhere too?
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Aside from the Honda Cog spoof, there haven't been any great ad spoofs floating around lately. Remember PUMA, or Victoria's Secret or Mastercard? That's what I'm talking about, people. Where are they? Where have all the spoofers gone? So, this is my challenge to all you ad spoofers out there: FIND! SPOOF! SUBMIT!

Pick an advertiser, spoof the ad, and submit it to Adrants. If you want to be famous, leave your name. If you want to be anonymous, that's fine too. I'll never tell.

Need an idea? You could have fun with those Skechers ads. You know the ones with the girls all sitting around looking cool in there Skechers. What if it became a Skechers orgy?
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From the ever vigilant trend-watcher, Trendwatching.com, there are some newly coined trends to discuss. The first, Digital Embrace, is the counterculture reaction to Digital Denial, a term coined by Forrester to describe the movie and music industries denial of the digital revolution. Again, it's the consumer who will be in the driver's seat. Not big corporation trying to protect their anachronistic business models.

Other intriguing trends to watch are Transumerism, catering to the traveling consumer; Online Oxygen, the need for constant connectivity to survive; and Pulse Publications, another term for the ever growing world of weblogs and their ability to cover every possible angle of every possible topic out there at all possible moments in time.

Outside Magazine has partnered with The Away Network to create OutsideLife, a web site to help outdoor lovers shop stores, find gear, and book trips. Those members who make a purchase on the site or at a physical store generates a donation to a charity of the member's choice. It's all done through on-site registration including using members credit card number to track members purchases. Every time a member purchases, a percentage of that purchase goes to the selected charity.
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So I could put this little image up on the left of a bunch of cheerleaders and tell you it's the next hot spot from some beer company. Or, I could tell the truth and let you know it's a very G rated commercial from Kodak about digital photography. Sex does sell... just not every week.

Aside from sex, this week from Ad Age's TV Spots of the Week we have talking animal tails for Frontier Airlines, Jason Alexander in the last of his KFC commercials, a hot chic kickin' with Charlie's Angels for Cingular (she has all her clothes on), a wierd spot for Hampton Inn, a woman obsessed over color for a hospital, some old dude picking cereal boxes off a tree for Kellog, and Volkwagen "dumping" for its new Transporter.
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In a guerilla marketing tactic similar to Forhead Advertising, Dunlop Tires has hired 6 people, whose heads are shaved like a tire pattern, to roam the city of Boston, excude coolness, and hand out Dunlop litrature. The Boston promotion, executed by Street Attack, is a test for future rollout into other markets.
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Yes, that's right. It does. That is according to Mark Stevens, author of 'Your Marketing Sucks'. Now this is a book I think I'll have to read. He's basically saying that most advertising out there is a pointless pursuit of a Clio at the expense of the advertiser's money.

"If you have an advertising agency that applies for any kind of award - Clios, whatever - fire them immediately," urges Stevens, president of Westchester based MSCO, a full-service marketing firm. "If they talk about building 'mind share', fire them immediately as well. That's just another way of saying they'll camouflage their failure to generate sales behind an intellectual smoke screen."

He does have appoint. It does seem like so much everything in the ad business is about winning awards. That's great but we put way too much emphasis on it. I have been through countless new business pitches where we reel off a list of awards we have won. But, these are awards for the creativity of the ad not for increasing the clients bottom line. Does it matter if the ad was creative or well liked? Or does it matter if sold product? That is the point of Stevens' book.

He defines marketing as activities that build your business. He's right. Why do anything unless it is going to build your business? Advertising is a subset of marketing. It's supposed to "position" the advertisers company. To make the consumer "feel" a certain way about a product. He claims most advertising does that but does nothing to support the marketing effort of increasing the bottom line. He may be onto something if we still can't answer that famous question about not knowing which half of your advertising is working.

So who does Stevens think is doing marketing the right way? "I think that the people who work on Madison Avenue need to go and look at infomercials once a month," he claims.

Infomercials do move product. Is an infomercial marketing or is it advertising? Or is it sales? Should an ad campaign sell a product or set the market up to be receptive to sales efforts? Are Marketing, sales and advertising separate entities or are they one? One thing's for sure. There's a whole lot of money being spent on advertising and there's a whole lot of company's in bad financial straights. Something isn't right.

I haven't read the book so I don't have the whole story. Any book with a title with this one is bound to attract attention whether there is meat to it or not. Has anyone read it? Does anyone have an opinion on this? Please comment.

A U.S. embassy spokeswoman said: "We believe that any likeness of a national government symbol in a commercial advertisement is in extremely poor taste.

"We are sending a letter to the advertiser that expresses our disappointment and displeasure about their choice of symbolism."

The brothel in question is called the White House and it is emblazoned with American-like imagery. Brian Legros, owner of the White House defends his use of the flag crest in the ad saying, "It's my crest. It might look like theirs, but it's not." And, "They (the U.S.) should get on with the affairs of their country and not worry about little old New Zealand."